FRANCE: France's killer heatwave has left hundreds of corpses lying unclaimed in Paris morgues, prompting city officials to organise temporary burials in paupers' graves to relieve pressure on their overburdened funeral services.
Revealing their dilemma at the weekend, officials announced a drive to contact families oblivious to their loved ones' fates and assured Parisians the corpses would not be buried anonymously in a common grave.
The lonesome burials added a grim new twist to the controversy over the heatwave, which has claimed an estimated 10,000 victims and raised questions about France's prized health system and the way it failed to care for its elderly citizens.
Several weeks of temperatures mounting to over 40 degrees Celsius in some areas took a heavy toll on dehydrated elderly people. About half the victims died in understaffed homes for the elderly or hospitals where they sought help.
Paris City Hall has unofficial estimates of 200 to 300 unclaimed corpses in morgues, including refrigerator trucks. - (Reuters)